SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The Jr. Voks football team doesn\u2019t have trouble finding the end zone. It\u2019s a 39-year-old youth football program building community in the heart of San Antonio\u2019s West Side.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cLike I said, it\u2019s been here for generations. That is not going to stop anytime soon,\u201d Mark Martinez said. \u201cI don\u2019t see it stopping anytime soon.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Not even the South Texas heat stopped parents from rooting for the Jr. Voks. They planted dozens of tents all over the bleachers and around the football field.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cOne thing about this team that I love is it\u2019s a lot of alumni\u2026 generational Voks,\u201d Joanna Frausto said. \u201cIt\u2019s nice to see that my kids are going to be part of that community.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
On one Saturday afternoon, temperatures reached triple digits, forcing parents like Frausto to bust out the mobile AC unit. Frausto watched all four of the Jr. Voks\u2019 games while her husband volunteered on the grill.<\/p>\n
\u201cI sat here earlier for 30 minutes without (the AC unit). It felt like I was in the oven,\u201d Frausto said.<\/p>\n
Experts say a football field with natural grass can stay below 100 degrees. Artificial turf like at a varsity football stadium can get anywhere between 120 and 180 degrees.<\/p>\n
Staying hydrated is critical for the referees who planted themselves under a tree for shade in between the four games they officiated on a recent Saturday.<\/p>\n
\u201cI got the young legs, I got the young energy,\u201d football referee Emilio Hernandez Jr. said. \u201cY\u2019all have to stay out, stay active. You got to get used to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
The referee was officiating alongside his father.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe always try to give as many water breaks for the kids and all that to make sure they are hydrating because I know it\u2019s hot for them,\u201d Emilio Hernandez Sr. said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s tough on fans watching from the stands. Aluminum bleachers with direct sunlight can get to 140 degrees or greater, while wooden bleachers can reach over 100 degrees.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t take care of them if we are not taking care ourselves,\u201d Frausto said. \u201cJust us leading by example.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2014 The Jr. Voks football team doesn\u2019t have trouble finding the end zone. It\u2019s a 39-year-old…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":443807,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[555,5201,6294,223,82,84,83,154,27,1569,835,172],"class_list":["post-443806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-app-sports","tag-app-weather","tag-jose-arredondo","tag-news","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news","tag-sports","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod","tag-weather"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=443806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/443806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/443807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=443806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=443806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=443806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}